Tiger Supporters Behind Dale All The Way
| Recent Tiger Rag Poll Says So
Dis n' Data. . .
Preacher Man Gets High Ratings: When LSU mentor Dale Brown, the so-called traveling evangelist of college basketball, sent his troops to the Final Four in Dallas, a survey which was taken about a couple of months ago came to mind.
A Tiger Rag magazine poll  published February 1  showed that Brown, 50, received mostly "excellent" and "above average" grades from LSU fans. That was long before anyone had dreamed of LSU this year making the Final Four, especially after Brown's fallout with a Mr. All-World named Tito Horford, Nikita Wilson's academic problems and the famous chicken pox incident.
I just wonder how much Brown's popularity stock has gone up since. The sky is the limit.
Approximately 1,100 readers responded to the survey. According to professional survey experts, such a high number of returns adds greater creditility to the poll, especially
Jamie Vaught
Cats' Pause Columnist
because the respondents had to provide their own postage. Even some research polls predicting who will become presidents of the United States reportedly have had fewer respondents.
In addition to Brown, the Tiger Rag readers were asked to rate the performance of LSU's other top athletic figures  head football coach Bill Arnsparger and athletic director Bob Brodhead. The fans were asked to grade them in one of five categories  excellent, above average, average, belove average and poor.
Tigers' AD Receives Low Performance Ratings
Both Brown and Arnsparger generally received high marks from the fans. On the other end. Brodhead  who has been involved in controversies such as the FBI's well-publicized bugging case  received low performance ratings.
In the "excellent" category, Arnsparger received 537 votes, with Brown getting 463. Brodhead got 116.
Brown received more votes than the other two in the "above average" category. Brown had 492 votes. Arnsparger 454 and Brodhead 349.
In the "poor" category, Brodhead had 227 votes, with Brown getting 16. Arnsparger received a total of only three negative votes.
The readers were also asked about whether they felt LSU's image had been damaged by stories in Sports Illustrated (with Brown on the cover in the Nov. 18 issue). Of the 1,057 responses, 729 thought LSU suffered some damage to its image and 328 did not.
Respondents were then asked which incident they felt did LSU more harm  Brown's attack on the NCAA or Brodhead's problems with the FBI. The majority of them (915) said the FBI investigation did more damage for the school's image, while 148 respondents said it was Brown's strong criticism of the NCAA.
Amen!
Announcer Set On Staying In Lexington
Hammond To Cover NFL: Lexingtonian Tom Hammond  who is rapidly becoming a well-known and respected play-by-play TV announcer in the nation  will once again be busy on weekends this coming fall. For the second year in a row, he will be working the NFL games for the NBC network.
"The intention is for me to do 15 of the 16 weeks in the NFL regular season," said the 41-year-old Hammond, who recently signed a two-year contract with the network. "The only one I would miss is the weekend of the Breeder's Cup. I will do the Breeder's Cup telecast again."
A former sports director at Lexington's WLEX-TV (Channel 18) who now owns a video production company in Lexington specializing in horse racing, Hammond was asked how he got his start in covering pro football.
"It all came about because of my working a horse racing event for them (NBC)," said the 1967 UK graduate with a degree in agriculture. "In 1984, they hired me to be a part of the telecast team for the Breeder's Cup ($10 million worth of racing) from Hollywood Park in California. The telecast went well. I guess they thought I performed OK. Because they said they were pleased, I told them that I would be interested in doing more events. So, NFL football was brought up and they said, 'We may have you do two or three games out of a 16-game season.' I was pleased with that, and I actually wound up doing 11 games (last fall)."
Hammond, who also has worked the SEC basketball games on TV for the last several years with color commentator Joe Dean, said he would not leave Lexington if he ever
had the opportunity to work full-time for a major TV network.
"No and I have had the opportunity in the past and turned it down," said the likeable Hammond who was recently listed as "up and coming" as a play-by-play man in the USA Today. "I don't know what it is about Lexington. I grew up here. I want to stay here. I love the area. I love the people. I'm established here professionally. There's the excitement of horse racing which keeps me here. I have no intention of leaving. In fact, if I were going to leave, I would have done it a long time ago  10 years ago because I had opportunities.
"If I had been playing the normal television game of advancing one's career, I would have had to try to advance to the next big market. I sort of rejected that strategy and I've gone off on my own in a different direction. Fortunately, it has turned out well. I don't know if there are too many people for a city of the size of Lexington who have worked only in a market of that size, and still gotten the opportunity to sign a contract for major events for a network."
Vol Mentor Hopes Big Orange Will Bounce Back
DeVoe Disappointed: For the first time since he became the head basketball coach at Tennessee in 1978, Don DeVoe's squad did not play in either the NCAA Tournament or the NIT. His team recently finished with a 12-16 mark, including a 5-13 SEC record. The overall mark is the worst of his 15-year coaching career.
Reflecting on this past season, DeVoe said, "Nobody could have been more disappointed than I was at the first losing season we have had at Tennessee since I came here. As head coach, the won-lost record is my responsibility and I accept them, but I want to make it clear that neither I nor my staff nor my players will ever be willing to settle for anything less than a winning year. We certainly didn't have that in mind when we started out in October and we're going to be working hard in the off-season to see that it doesn't happen again.
"We wound up playing an unusually large number of underclassmen this season and while that may have cost us some victories, I hope that it will turn out to be a long-range plus.
"This past season is history and we'll start practice next October with the slate wiped clean. We have a lot of players on our squad, and every one of them will have a fair chance to make the lineup."
"My decision to stay at Tennessee was an easy one to make. I have always enjoyed being a part of the UT family.' As I've said earlier, the good times will be back. We've had them before, and we'll have them again."
 Vol coach Don DeVoe
On his recent decision to stay in Knoxville, withdrawing his name from a list of coaching candidates at Ohio State, DeVoe said, "My decision to stay at Tennessee was an easy one to make. I have always enjoyed being a part of the UT family. As I've said earlier, the good times will be back. We've had them before, and we'll have them again."
Ohio State since has named Gary Williams, from Boston College, as its new head coach.
Commodore Brown Will Face Powerful Tide In VU Debut
Potpourri Notes: Vanderbilt's new head football coach Watson Brown  who has set Nashville on fire with his personal charm and enthusiasm  will make his debut on Sept. 6 when the Commodores open the 1986 campaign against Alabama in Tuscaloosa. The game with the Crimson Tide was originally scheduled for Sept. 27 but was moved up to make it attractive as a possible television game and to give Vandy an open date after its first three games. Brown makes his home debut against Tulane, coached by his brother Mack, on Sept. 20. . .Ole Miss assistant football coach Carl Torbush spends his free time collecting baseball cards. . .LSU's spring football practice is presenting a new challenge for the offensive coaching staff, as for the first time in four years it must sort through the candidates and replace the entire starting backfield (running backs Dalton Hilliard and Garry James, and quarterback Jeff Wickersham) which accounted for more than 13,000 total offensive yards during that period. The Tigers, meanwhile, return virtually everyone on defense from a unit which rated third nationally against scoring in 1985. . .In basketball, LSU reportedly is expected to host Georgetown and North Carolina at home next winter. . .Vanderbilt generally has been thought of to have a good basketball program, but a weak football program. But if you take a look at Vandy's performance on the hardwood against the SEC teams in the last 10 years, you would say the Commodore hoop program has fallen upon hard times. From 1976-77 season to present, Vandy has posted eight losing SEC records. Before that  from 1948-49 to 1975-76, it was just the opposite. The Commodores were the winners, having only four losing seasons during that 28-year span.